20 Years Later
by hamie
Summary: Jenny Castle learns the history behind her favorite bedtime story.


"I don't know why you like hearing this story so much Jenny" "Please Mom just one more time" Some people read their children picture books about princess and fairies others make up stories at bedtime but Jenny liked to hear the story of the summer of 1963, the story of how Frances "Baby" Houseman learned to dance and how she fell in love for the first time. Every night Jenny asked her mother to tell her the same story and every night she fell asleep at the same point in the story just after the final dance of the season as Baby and Johnny were leaving the dance. Jenny never heard the end of the story she always fell asleep and eventually she became too old for bedtime stories and forgot all about the summer of 1963.

That is until the summer after Jenny graduated high school before she left for university her parents insisted the family spend the summer together as a family. Her father worked away from home during the summer but this year the whole family would be going with him. Jenny wasn't looking forward to a summer away from home, away from her friends but her parents insisted. Her father had already left for work a few weeks before she finished school, he had to get everything organized for the summer so Jenny and her mother were driving up together after her graduation, her father had driven down for the ceremony but had left immediately after to get back to work so Jenny and her mother packed up their car and closed up the house for the summer.

They had been driving for about an hour when Jenny started to get bored "Tell me the story again"

"What story? Did I miss the first part of a conversation?" her mother looked at completely confused

"No, the story you told me when I was growing up, the summer of 1963, the summer of first dances and first loves"

"It's been a long time since you wanted to hear that story"

"I've never heard the end, what happens after the big dance?"

When her mom turned to face her Jenny knew she was about to hear her favorite bedtime story one more time. "Ok but if you fall asleep we are not starting again"

"Actually why don't you tell the story the book is in my bag" Jenny dug through her mother's bag until she pulled out an old worn out book. It was the first book her mother had written. Jenny knew there was a hardcover copy in her mother's office that no one touched. That book was the first book to come off the printed press and it meant more to her mother than all the other books she had written and all the awards she had won put together. The copy her mother always read from was close to falling apart she had read it to Jenny so many times. She started the same way her mother always did, the way any great story should, at the beginning.

Jenny read the story to her mother as they drove only stopping a few times for rest stops and food. She was just getting to the final dance when her mother announced they were almost there. "No, I'm going to miss the end again". Her mother started laughing at her, "we can finish later I want to get settled in then we can keep reading until you dad finishes work" "Ok but I want to find out the ending" "You will after we are unpacked"

Her mother pulled into the staff parking lot, Jenny had been here before but they usually only spent a few weeks spread throughout the summer this would be the first time they spent the whole summer at the resort with her father. Her mother got out of the car and had a quick stretch before leaning back down so she could see Jenny sitting in the passenger seat "can you carry they bags down to the cabin or as I know you will as soon as I walk away talk one of the staff into carrying the bags down while I go get the key from your dad. Jenny's mom was laughing as she walked away down the path toward the resort, she knew her daughter to well, Jenny's motto was why lift heavy things when you can get a cute boy to do it for you.

By the time her mother returned Jenny had convinced two of the guys on the staff to carry all their bags to the cabin. "I've got the keys, your father says 'Hi' and that he will try to join us for dinner but that's still a few hours away so we have time to finish reading". Jenny helped her mother drag their bags into the cabin before flopping onto the couch and starting to read while her mother unpacked.

The cabin wasn't very big it was separate from the rest of the staff cabins back farther into the woods. Jenny knew it had been remodeled when she was a kid turning into a real cabin. She had seen picture of the original cabin which was really just a large bedroom but when she was 3 it had been remodeled. It now had a small kitchen and living room the cabin had been expanded and 2 bedrooms had been added. It was a second home for her dad he spent all summer in the cabin and a few weeks in the winter which was the real reason his boss had renovated the cabin her dad would only work during the winter if he could still stay in his cabin which meant insulating it so he wouldn't freeze at night.

Jenny could hear her mom in the master bedroom (or the slightly larger bedroom they called the master) unpacking but she had spent enough time there to know her mom could still easily hear her. "Why is the story in the book different from what you used to tell me when I was a kid?" "I took out some of the more adult content I wasn't going to tell my 4 year old daughter about abortion and sex". "I guess not, can I start reading again?" "Yes" Jenny started reading right where she had left off in the car. There were only a few pages between her and the ending she had waited 8 years to hear.

When Jenny finished she looked up to find her mother leaning against the bedroom door frame smiling at her.

"Wait the story is about you?"

"Who did you think it was about? You've heard you dad call me baby all your life"

"Yeah but I thought it was just a cute name he called you no one else calls you that like they do in the story besides you're a mom, mom's aren't that cool" Baby looked a little insulted about being called uncool.

"After that summer people stopped calling me Baby except your dad, I had grown up that summer and wasn't the baby of the family anymore"

"So that's how you and dad meet? Where is Kellerman's why haven't we ever been there?"

"You are there now, this was Kellerman's in 1963 it wasn't doing great but it was surviving it wasn't appealing to kids. Mr. Kellerman gave the resort to his grandson Neil to run hoping he would be able to draw in a younger crowd and save the resort but no one could stand him guests or staff and he ended up running the resort into bankruptcy. 2 years later someone bought the property, renamed it and reopened. They hired you dad to run the entertainment side of the business organizing activities for the guest while they ran the hotel side. It's been a hit ever since. I know as much as you complain about coming up her you always have fun." Jenny knew her mother was right when she was younger she would get to bring a friend with her for the week and they spend all day running around the resort playing games with the other kids.

"So after that summer you and dad dated while you were in university and got married and you had me after you graduated?" "Yes your dad insisted I go to university before we got married, he didn't want me to have any regrets about not following my dreams to be with him. I had planned to still spend a year in the Peace Corps before we got married but in my last year I took a creative writing class, this book was an assignment for the class and my professor encouraged me to submit it to a publisher and I've been writing ever since."

"So do you have any regrets about marrying dad?"

"Just 1 I wish we had of had another kid, after you were born I got really busy with writing and then I got sick and the doctors told us we would probably never be able to have more kids. You always wanted a sibling when you were little and I always imagined having a few kids. If you want something you have to take it don't wait until later because it might be too late."

"Maybe I'll find Mr. Right here this summer" Jenny tried to keep a straight face but it only lasted a few seconds before both were laughing "you had better not have as much fun this summer as I did when I was your age" "I'll try to behave, I'm goanna go see if I can find dad maybe see if there is anything fun planned for tonight". "Ok, I'll see you at supper at 6pm."

Jenny left the cabin heading thought he woods to find her dad, she couldn't believe the story she had heard so many times, the story she had dreamed would happen to her as a child was her parents' story, the story of how she came to be. She couldn't have wished for a more romantic start to life and who knows maybe one day she would get a story she could tell her kids, she could only hope.


End file.
